


Life Collisions

by Kayryn



Category: Holby City
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Elinor Lives, F/F, Minor Character Death, Pre-Canon, Serena and Bernie are still married to Edward and Marcus, and the kids are all small, no Jason - sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayryn/pseuds/Kayryn
Summary: AU. Pre-canon. A single accident can change many lives. It can tear people away from you, but it can also bring people together. One shot or a possible first chapter of a slow burn if there’s interest.





	Life Collisions

**Author's Note:**

> Something that started as a 'what if' in a chat with Regency. One-shot for now, but if there's interest I do have the rest plotted, though not written. 
> 
> Thanks for Regency for being the best cheerleader ever and for lysacan for her awesome beta reading skills. (All mistakes mine.)

Serena Campbell is in surgery, repairing and saving the blood circulation to a man’s hand. She’s focused on her work, determinedly trying not to think about how she’s recently found out that her husband, Edward, has cheated on her, again.

 

First time it happened was before they were married, second time soon after they were married, and third while she was pregnant with Elinor. She thinks he cheated on her in the first months right after Ellie was born, and now she's caught him at it again.

 

First time he said he was drunk. He and Serena had had a row, and it didn't mean anything. He’d gotten jealous when she’d flirted with Dave from work, and it just happened. He kissed her and cried and said he was sorry, and she said she was sorry she’d flirted with Dave when she knew he liked her. She promised not to do it again.

 

Second time he said he was drunk and he was sorry and promised it would never happen again. They'd had a massive row, and she'd hurt him, and he was an ass and wanted to hurt her back and now he was sorry.

 

Serena didn't apologize this time and hated that she felt like she made him do it.

 

When he cheated on her while she was pregnant, he didn't apologize. He promised he'd never do it again. This was the last time. He said he wouldn't have done it now either, but they'd had a dry spell because of Serena's morning sickness (which lasted all day and for months) and he'd just... well, you couldn’t blame a guy for wanting some action, could you? Besides the nurse had practically threw herself on him, he hadn't really even had time to say no.

 

He never confessed the ongoing affair he’d had with a nurse in the months after Elinor's birth. But Serena knew. She could smell the perfume, saw the long red hairs in his clothes. Serena wanted to divorce him, but she was scared of being on her own with the baby. Elinor was so small, and Serena was so tired, and while Edward wasn't exactly helping, at least he paid his half of the mortgage and food and bills and... If Serena was left alone, then what? She could also hear her mother's voice, tutting at how she'd failed, disappointed her once again. 

 

Serena had gone to Adrienne the last time, when she'd found out about Edward cheating on her while she was pregnant. Usually, she wouldn't have gone to her mother with such a thing, hadn’t the previous times, but she blamed hormones, needing reassurance from her mother, the one person who was supposed to have her back, no matter what. Adrienne had told her that she'd never had any trouble keeping Serena's father interested in only her. "You must keep him happy, Serena. He's a man! If he can't find what he wants home, of course he will look elsewhere."

 

With Elinor sleeping in her arms, Serena cried, quietly so as not to wake the baby. She thought of those weeks, months, she had dealt with morning sickness that lasted all day, the backache and the swollen ankles, the hormones. And now that Ellie was here, the long nights staying awake and then going to work, or the long nights going to work and trying to stay awake enough during the day to look after the baby. Elinor’s cholic and the never-ending stacks of laundry, bottles and nappies. Keeping Edward in the bedroom was the last thing on Serena’s mind, really. And yet, having him going somewhere else, to someone else, felt like a failure on her part.

 

Now Elinor is five, and Serena’s found out that Edward is having another affair. At first, she thought she was just being paranoid; it’s been years since his last one, he’s been a decent husband and father, aside from his drinking. But things started to pile up. She entered the break room at the hospital, and her coworkers grew silent. He said he had to work late, but came home with tomato stains on his shirt, a receipt from a restaurant in his pocket. She left the hospital and saw two nurses talking, looking at her and then quickly looking away as they saw her staring back at them. He came home late, again, smelling of perfume that was not hers. She saw Edward at work flirting with a nurse, told herself it was nothing until she saw Ms Daniels, the consultant on her ward, looking at her with sympathy. 

 

Serena feels humiliated. Having an affair is bad enough, but it’s even worse when everyone at work knows he’s cheating on her. They must think she’s pathetic. 

 

She’d filled the papers for divorce, all ready except for her signature, and yet she had hesitated. Couldn’t help but question if there was more she could do, if she should try harder. For Elinor’s sake (certainly not for her own). And then, one day, she and Elinor had been shopping for new shoes for the girl when Elinor had turned to her and asked why mummy didn’t like daddy’s special friend. It had taken Serena a moment for the pieces to click into place, another to reign in her thoughts. She’d asked Elinor what she meant and listened as her daughter explained how she’d met daddy’s special friend but daddy had said they couldn’t tell mummy because mummy wouldn’t like her. Elinor had looked at her, her face a little sad, and asked why, because Alison had been nice. Why didn’t mummy like Alison? 

 

Serena had managed to mumble something and planned to throw Edward out that very day. But he was working the night shift, and the next day he and Elinor had a father - daughter day planned, and Elinor had so been looking forward to it. Serena would be at work. So she had reigned in her anger, postponed throwing his things into the front garden. 

 

But today, after work, she’s going to ask if Adrienne can look after Elinor for a while. And then she plans on telling Edward she wants a divorce.

 

Serena is still in surgery when Sheila, a nurse from the ward, runs in and tells Serena to come to the phone. Serena’s about to to point out to her that she’s in the middle of saving a man’s hand, but the look on Sheila’s face makes blood drain from Serena’s, and it’s very close that she drops the surgical needle in her hand and does some serious damage to the man’s arm. Ms Daniels, who’s been overseeing the surgery, tells her to go. Serena hands over the tools and hurries away. 

 

She’s washing her hands and arms as quickly as she dares without risking being careless. She doesn’t look at the nurse when she finally asks her, with her heart in her throat, “Elinor?” 

 

“Elinor was involved, but they don’t know yet how badly. But Serena, it’s Edward,” Sheila pauses, letting the words sink in. “It was a car accident. They’re both at St. James’, they’ve rushed him into surgery.”

 

Serena knows she should not be driving, knows her head is not clear enough for it and that the last thing she needs is to get into a car accident of her own. But she doesn’t have the time to wait for a taxi, her baby needs her. Brushing away tears determinedly she tells herself to focus on the road; getting herself to St. James’, to Ellie, is her priority. 

 

Serena will never tell anyone how little she cares about Edward being injured. Of course she doesn’t want him dead; she might’ve cursed his very existence just an hour ago but she doesn’t want him to actually die. But it’s not because of him she’s rushing across town to another hospital. 

 

Serena arrives at St. James’ and is shown to their ED. She knows some of the doctors at the hospital, but that doesn’t help her with getting information. Doctor or not, to them she’s just another concerned mother and she’s shown to the family room to wait, just like anyone else. It’s driving her crazy, and she wants to demand to see Elinor and her doctor now, but knows too well from her own experience how things work. Knows it’s better to give them a chance to just do what needs to be done, without interruptions. Not that it’s easy for her. She’s told they’ve taken Elinor to have some scans done, and as soon as she’s back on the ward, they’ll come and get Serena to be with her. 

 

And so Serena waits. 

 

It doesn’t take long, not really, but it feels like forever. She’s not alone in the family room either. There’s a an elderly woman sitting in the corner chairs with a young man, both of them looking worried, and a mother, around Serena’s age she would guess, with two children, a girl and a boy.

 

Serena’s very much paying attention to nothing and no one other than the clock on the wall and the door as she waits for a doctor or a nurse to come and get her. Her attention is drawn to the woman with the children, though, when one of the kids, the boy, knocks down a small juice carton. There’s orange juice all over the floor and the seat opposite Serena as well as the little girl’s clothes. The mother chides the boy, but he doesn’t look too sorry. A thought crosses Serena’s mind, that she’s glad she has a daughter who is so well behaved. The boy seems like just the kind of little terror who gets into all kinds of scrapes. Then she worries about Elinor again. Scans don’t take this long. What if something’s gone wrong? Have they taken Ellie to surgery and just haven’t had time to tell her? If only they’d taken Ellie to Holby… 

 

Serena watches the mother trying to find something in the bottom of her bag as the girl’s lower lip starts to quiver. 

 

“I don’t have napkins, Lottie,” the mother says. “Just come and sit on my other side. It’s okay, sweetheart, we’ll just change your shirt when we get home.”

 

Serena remembers the napkins she has in her bag, always there for the messes Elinor gets into. “Here,” she says, offering them to the woman. “At least for the girl’s shirt and hands.”

 

“Thank you.” 

 

Somehow they get to talking, later on Serena won’t even remember how, so dazed she is. But she remembers the woman’s barely there smile as she introduces herself. Bernie. It’s clear they’re all there to wait on news about loved ones, and it’s Bernie who asks Serena first.

 

“My daughter was in a car accident,” Serena replies, still in disbelief it’s happened. She checks the clock once again. Has it moved since she last looked? She looks at Bernie and adds, “Husband, too. I mean he was driving, Elinor was in the car with him.” 

 

Bernie’s face goes blank. And Serena just knows. Thankfully she doesn’t have to ask as Bernie confirms it for her.

 

“My husband was in a car accident, too. A collision with another car. They said that there were two other injuries, one of them a child.”

 

They stare at each other for a moment. What is there to say? Sorry my husband’s car crashed with yours? They don’t even know what happened.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, settings, or stories recognizable as being from Holby City. They are the property of their actors, producers, writers, and studios, not me. No copyright infringement was intended and no money was made in the writing or distribution of this story.


End file.
